PSU, Brits debate

For the second year in a row, members of the Portland State debate team squared off against two members of the National British debate team at an event held Friday in Smith Memorial Student Union.

As part of a nationwide tour, British national debate members Ed James and Derek Doyle stopped at PSU to engage in debate with members of ASPSU, including president Hannah Fisher, as well as members of the university debate team.

Only a handful of people showed up to event, which explored the topic of whether or not PSU professors should have to take a course in cultural competency, offering understanding of minority cultures, before they are allowed to teach.

Fisher was joined by Virginia Vickery, ASPSU’s director of university affairs. Fisher and Vickery were joined at their table by Will Parker and Dana Hawthorne of the PSU Forensics team. The opposing team was joined by PSU debate team members Shawn Partch and Carly Nairn, who also works for the Vanguard.

Although the PSU team held their own, the British national team gave prompt answers to every facet of the topic. ASPSU and the PSU team displayed knowledge of the topic, but were often trumped by the British debaters.

James recently graduated with a degree in history, and Doyle, a native of Ireland, just received his degree in sociology and philosophy.

During the event, a standard mace debate format was used, meaning speakers are allowed to ask for “points of information,” while audience members are allowed to participate by saying “for shame” when disagreeing with a speaker.

The crux of the visiting British team’s argument was that in an academic setting, cultural awareness training is unnecessary and possibly even anti-productive, for a variety of reasons.

One point the British debaters made was that comparing cultural sensitivity in the corporate world to cultural training in academia is not necessarily equal, as the two ideas are too far removed from one another to suggest that success in one might be linked to success in the other.

The event was moderated by Josh Gross, PSU’s assistant debate coach. Gross said that a national debate coming to PSU was good for the university.

“This is a big deal,” Gross said. “This is like a pro football team playing an exhibition game at PSU.” He expressed a hope that this event, as well as others like it, would serve to attract attention to the forensics and debate program at Portland State.

Gross also expressed pleasure at the outcome despite the poor turnout. “We only had a chance to practice once,” he said, “but all in all, I think we did pretty well.”

Fisher agreed with Gross’ sentiment.

“I think all of the major issues were brought to light,” she said.